West Jax Rotary

OFFSITE MEETING AT JACKSONVILLE MUNICIPAL STADIUM
Please arrive between 11:45 AM and 12 Noon. The program will begin promptly at Noon.

Notes
Terry Bahn requested participation at the Sulzbacher this coming Saturday.

Bill Howey reminded everyone that there will be no club meeting here at the Holiday Inn next Wednesday, July 22, 2009.

Our Club will meet at the “Jaguar Stadium” Wednesday, July 22, 2009. It is requested that you arrive by 11:45 a.m. as the meeting will begin precisely at Noon and end at 12:30 p.m.

There will be 3 tours after the lunch: the Weight Room, the Locker Room and the Field.

Please remember to send your Rotary Family updates to Marty Sack. He is the club’s “Town Crier”. Also, President John asked that if you know of any members being recognized by the newspaper or for any reason please notify Marty.

Jim Kelly, Program Chair, introduced our guest speaker, Bruce Hamilton, Anchor, Channel 4’s The Morning Show. Bruce began his career in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has been a news reporter eventually coming to Jacksonville. During his career he has had one on one interviews with both Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton.

Bruce touched on several topics, i.e. crime and the economy: Bruce blamed crime on 3 important factors. One, Lack of Family Values, two, Failure to Communicate and three, the Economy. All of these affect not only the individual, but you and your neighbors. As for the economy, Bruce stated that the economy of the past is not going to return to its status of the past 20 years. The economy at present is the result of too much risk taking, excessive indulgence, over leveraging by businesses and the lack of oversight those government organizations whose responsibility it was to regulate not operate. We are getting into an era of too much government intervention and attempts to control all aspects of the business world.

What the economy needs is corporate leadership and to the rebuilding of public trust. Corporations need to express their role and be responsible in business dealing. Failed leadership in the past needs to be overcome. We need to have a grass roots effort to get back to basics, work for and not against sound reasonable reforms, i.e. Health Care and energy. We need to work with companies, doctors and insurance companies to improve good quality care for all and not have a big government take over which will be very bureaucratic and inefficient. We need to embrace corporate management and true performers. Management should become more professional.

Bruce then took a few questions. The first was the Role of Government? It is to monitor and oversee, but not become the manager of business. Government should help at a reasonable distance. Leadership in corporations needs to be more accountable to Boards and stock holders to ensure business is operated on the up and up. What are your thoughts on the media of today? Media does not do its job any more. Instead of reporting news they attempt to make news. News reporting in its current fashion is ratings driven and the readers and viewers are the cause.

Everyone is out to make that big buck while not truly caring about the who, what, when and why anymore. Ratings bring in the money and the large the rating the more sponsors.

SPECIAL NOTE: We will be having a blueberry sale this Saturday to raise money for our charity fund. We need volunteers! If you are interested, please send an e-mail to blueberries@westjaxrotary.org.

Visiting Rotarians:
Marcus Drewa — South Jax
Anne Renfroe — Downtown Jacksonville
Jay Millson — Downtown Jacksonville
Ed Witt — Downtown Jacksonville
John Harward — Green Cove Springs
Steve Rodesney — Orange Park

Rotary Guests:
Chad Miller — Guest of Paul Mohrman

Birthdays
Tom Crabtree — July 18
Roger Gibson — July 19
Frank Surface — July 31

Next Meeting - July 29, 2009
Speaker: Allen Verlander, Athletic Director, Jacksonville University
Greeters: Terry Vereen and Tommy Gower
Invocation: Drew Story
Pledge: Ron Roberts
Four-Way Test: Scott Imray

Please review the 2009 - 2010 Duty Roster and mark your calendar with your responsibilities for the upcoming year.